COMPUTER NETWORK LECTURE NOTES-- Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)

Asynchronous transfer mode

Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is an International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunications Standards Section (ITU-T) standard for cell relay wherein information for multiple service types, such as voice, video, or data, is conveyed in small, fixed-size cells. ATM networks are connection-oriented. ATM is a cell-switching and multiplexing technology that combines the benefits of circuit switching (guaranteed capacity and constant transmission delay) with those of packet switching (flexibility and efficiency for intermittent traffic). It provides scalable bandwidth from a few megabits per second (Mbps) to many gigabits per second (Gbps). Because of its asynchronous nature, ATM is more efficient than synchronous technologies, such as time-division multiplexing (TDM). With TDM, each user is assigned to a time slot, and no other station can send in that time slot. If a station has much data to send, it can send only when its time slot comes up, even if all other time slots are empty. However, if a station has nothing to transmit when its time slot comes up, the time slot is sent empty and is wasted. Because ATM is asynchronous, time slots are available on demand with information identifying the source of the transmission contained in the header of each ATM cell. ATM transfers information in fixed-size units called cells. Each cell consists of 53 octets, or bytes. The first 5 bytes contain cell-header information, and the remaining 48 contain the payload (user information). Small, fixed-length cells are well suited to transferring voice and video traffic because such traffic is intolerant of delays that result from having to wait for a large data packet to download, among other things. Figure illustrates the basic format of an ATM cell. Figure :An ATM Cell Consists of a Header and Payload Data ATM Protocol architecture:   ATM is almost similar to cell relay and packets witching using X.25and framerelay.like packet switching and frame relay,ATM involves the transfer of data in discrete pieces.also,like packet switching and frame relay ,ATM allows multiple logical connections to multiplexed over a single physical interface. in the case of ATM,the information flow on each logical connection is organised into fixed-size packets, called cells. ATM is a streamlined protocol with minimal error and flow control capabilities :this reduces the overhead of processing ATM cells and reduces the number of overhead bits required with each cell, thus enabling ATM to operate at high data rates.the use of fixed-size cells simplifies the processing required at each ATM node,again supporting the use of ATM at high data rates. The ATM architecture uses a logical model to describe the functionality that it supports. ATM functionality corresponds to the physical layer and part of the data link layer of the OSI reference model. . the protocol referencce model shown makes reference to three separate planes: user plane provides for user information transfer ,along with associated controls (e.g.,flow control ,error control). control plane performs call control and connection control functions. management plane includes plane management ,which performs management function related to a system as a whole and provides coordination between all the planes ,and layer management which performs management functions relating to resource and parameters residing in its protocol entities . The ATM reference model is composed of the following ATM layers: • Physical layer—Analogous to the physical layer of the OSI reference model, the ATM physical layer manages the medium-dependent transmission. • ATM layer—Combined with the ATM adaptation layer, the ATM layer is roughly analogous to the data link layer of the OSI reference model. The ATM layer is responsible for the simultaneous sharing of virtual circuits over a physical link (cell multiplexing) and passing cells through the ATM network (cell relay). To do this, it uses the VPI and VCI information in the header of each ATM cell. • ATM adaptation layer (AAL)—Combined with the ATM layer, the AAL is roughly analogous to the data link layer of the OSI model. The AAL is responsible for isolating higher-layer protocols from the details of the ATM processes. The adaptation layer prepares user data for conversion into cells and segments the data into 48-byte cell payloads. Finally, the higher layers residing above the AAL accept user data, arrange it into packets, and hand it to the AAL. Figure :illustrates the ATM reference model.   Structure of an ATM cell An ATM cell consists of a 5 byte header and a 48 byte payload. The payload size of 48 bytes was a compromise between the needs of voice telephony and packet networks, obtained by a simple averaging of the US proposal of 64 bytes and European proposal of 32, said by some to be motivated by a European desire not to need echo-cancellers on national trunks. ATM defines two different cell formats: NNI (Network-network interface) and UNI (User-network interface). Most ATM links use UNI cell format.       Diagram of the UNI ATM Cell 7     4 3     0 GFC VPI VPI VCI VCI VCI PT CLP HEC   Payload (48 bytes) Diagram of the NNI ATM Cell 7     4 3     0 VPI VPI VCI VCI VCI PT CLP HEC   Payload (48 bytes)     GFC = Generic Flow Control (4 bits) (default: 4-zero bits) VPI = Virtual Path Identifier (8 bits UNI) or (12 bits NNI) VCI = Virtual channel identifier (16 bits) PT = Payload Type (3 bits) CLP = Cell Loss Priority (1-bit) HEC = Header Error Correction (8-bit CRC, polynomial = X8 + X2 + X + 1) The PT field is used to designate various special kinds of cells for Operation and Management (OAM) purposes, and to delineate packet boundaries in some AALs. Several of ATM's link protocols use the HEC field to drive a CRC-Based Framing algorithm, which allows the position of the ATM cells to be found with no overhead required beyond what is otherwise needed for header protection. The 8-bit CRC is used to correct single-bit header errors and detect multi-bit header errors. When multi-bit header errors are detected, the current and subsequent cells are dropped until a cell with no header errors is found. In a UNI cell the GFC field is reserved for a local flow control/submultiplexing system between users. This was intended to allow several terminals to share a single network connection, in the same way that two ISDN phones can share a single basic rate ISDN connection. All four GFC bits must be zero by default.The NNI cell format is almost identical to the UNI format, except that the 4-bit GFC field is re-allocated to the VPI field, extending the VPI to 12 bits. Thus, a single NNI ATM interconnection is capable of addressing almost 212 VPs of up to almost 216 VCs each (in practice some of the VP and VC numbers are reserved). A Virtual Channel (VC) denotes the transport of ATM cells which have the same unique identifier, called the Virtual Channel Identifier (VCI). This identifier is encoded in the cell header. A virtual channel represents the basic means of communication between two end-points, and is analogous to an X.25 virtual circuit. A Virtual Path (VP) denotes the transport of ATM cells belonging to virtual channels which share a common identifier, called the Virtual Path Identifier (VPI), which is also encoded in the cell header. A virtual path, in other words, is a grouping of virtual channels which connect the same end-points. This two layer approach results in improved network performance. Once a virtual path is set up, the addition/removal of virtual channels is straightforward     ATM Classes of Services ATM is connection oriented and allows the user to specify the resources required on a per-connection basis (per SVC) dynamically. There are the five classes of service defined for ATM (as per ATM Forum UNI 4.0 specification). The QoS parameters for these service classes are summarized in Table 1. Service Class Quality of Service Parameter constant bit rate (CBR) This class is used for emulating circuit switching. The cell rate is constant with time. CBR applications are quite sensitive to cell-delay variation. Examples of applications that can use CBR are telephone traffic (i.e., nx64 kbps), videoconferencing, and television. variable bit rate–non-real time (VBR–NRT) This class allows users to send traffic at a rate that varies with time depending on the availability of user information. Statistical multiplexing is provided to make optimum use of network resources. Multimedia e-mail is an example of VBR–NRT. variable bit rate–real time (VBR–RT) This class is similar to VBR–NRT but is designed for applications that are sensitive to cell-delay variation. Examples for real-time VBR are voice with speech activity detection (SAD) and interactive compressed video. available bit rate (ABR) This class of ATM services provides rate-based flow control and is aimed at data traffic such as file transfer and e-mail. Although the standard does not require the cell transfer delay and cell-loss ratio to be guaranteed or minimized, it is desirable for switches to minimize delay and loss as much as possible. Depending upon the state of congestion in the network, the source is required to control its rate. The users are allowed to declare a minimum cell rate, which is guaranteed to the connection by the network. unspecified bit rate (UBR) This class is the catch-all, other class and is widely used today for TCP/IP.   Technical Parameter Definition cell loss ratio (CLR) CLR is the percentage of cells not delivered at their destination because they were lost in the network due to congestion and buffer overflow. cell transfer delay (CTD) The delay experienced by a cell between network entry and exit points is called the CTD. It includes propagation delays, queuing delays at various intermediate switches, and service times at queuing points. cell delay variation (CDV) CDV is a measure of the variance of the cell transfer delay. High variation implies larger buffering for delay-sensitive traffic such as voice and video. peak cell rate (PCR) The maximum cell rate at which the user will transmit. PCR is the inverse of the minimum cell inter-arrival time. sustained cell rate (SCR) This is the average rate, as measured over a long interval, in the order of the connection lifetime. burst tolerance (BT) This parameter determines the maximum burst that can be sent at the peak rate. This is the bucket-size parameter for the enforcement algorithm that is used to control the traffic entering the network. Benefits of ATM The benefits of ATM are the following: high performance via hardware switching dynamic bandwidth for bursty traffic class-of-service support for multimedia scalability in speed and network size common LAN/WAN architecture opportunities for simplification via VC architecture international standards compliance